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Students banned from popular RHS Teepee Lounge

Eighteen Ruidoso High School students are getting a harsh life lesson on the trials of running a business under the scrutiny of government regulators whose sudden brainstorms can spoil an entrepreneur's day, and profits.

Eighteen Ruidoso High School students are getting a harsh life lesson on the trials of running a business under the scrutiny of government regulators whose sudden brainstorms can spoil an entrepreneur's day, and profits.

"It's turning out to be something of a civics lesson, too," said RHS Principal Cody Patterson.

The students operate the Teepee Lounge on the second floor of the school's main building. Open to the public, the Lounge has become a popular midday eatery, though lunch is served only one day a week and you need a Warrior hall pass to reach it.

The Lounge has been serving up 150 tasty lunches each Thursday since the 1980s, each one planned, cooked, sold, served and cleaned up after by top students of the RHS culinary arts program under the professional eye of teacher Julie Rigsby.

About half the customers who crowd the Lounge for each of two back-to-back seatings have always been other students who appreciated the excellent food, not to mention the relief from the noisy chaos of the cafeteria.

"Mom, it's so nice," one diner told his mother, according to Rigsby. "They have real silverware, real plates, real napkins."

But suddenly the lounge has been made off limits to students, thanks to a perfect storm of federal nutrition rules and state guidelines for complying with them.

Laws and rules designed to feed needy students, curb student obesity and limit availability of empty calories and junk food on campus are inflicting some serious collateral damage on programs like Ms. Rigsby's.

Like most school districts, Ruidoso benefits from free and reduced price meals subsidized by federal dollars. The assistance is important to a majority of RMSD families, but it comes with some strings attached.

"Competing sources" of food offered to students during school hours have to comply with nutrition and portion size guidelines that are mainly aimed at snack foods of the type purchased from vending machines.

The rules don't match up well against the full, home-style meals the Teepee Lounge dishes up. Last Thursday it was chicken breasts covered in a savory sauce, rice, mixed vegetables, a green salad, and for dessert a modest square of "Mississippi mud pie."

It was fresh, whole food, carefully prepared in a gleaming kitchen, just like mother used to make. But the Lounge and other culinary arts programs around the country don't serve "snack" portions. Nor are they well equipped to rigidly track compliance with calorie count, trans-fats and other federal "smart snack" standards.

So this school year, teachers, parents, and other adult Lounge fans can still chow down every Thursday on some of the tastiest food in town, a bargain at $8.

But as of last month, no kids get in.

The word went out in an open letter from RMSD Supt. George Bickert, sending a shock wave of resentment and disappointment throughout the culinary arts program and the whole RHS community.

"When I talk to the kids, they're not going to take this lying down," Patterson said. "That's not the kind of kids we have in this program. They're entrepreneurs. They'll have regulations to deal with in business and in life. Time to start learning how."

Patterson and Rigsby are encouraging the students to seize the situation as an opportunity to figure out how to market their food services more effectively to other parts of their customer base.

In addition to sit-down lunches, Teepee Lounge fills take-out orders, serves private luncheons to Rotary and other civic groups, and has a lively off-site catering business. Twice a semester, the rules include a fund-raising exemption that lets the Lounge serve students. Last Thursday during Homecoming Week was one of those special occasions.

Together with the regular Thursday lunch proceeds, the Lounge produces enough revenue to pay all expenses with enough left over to give each student-restauranteur an end-of-year-payday of $800 or more.

Losing the student customers will put a big dent in those profits. But Rigsby and Patterson say the loss is measured in much more than money.

Making a fine lunch for their classmates lets the culinary arts students show their skills to the people whose opinion matters most to them, helps them learn the value of serving their peers and teaches them they have to "put on a professional demeanor" whether they feel like it or not, Patterson said. "In any service industry, things don't always go smoothly."

As for the student-diners, in addition to enjoying a quality lunchtime experience, students "learn to treat servers with respect," Patterson added. "They mingle with adults. They feel motivated to use their best manners. They can hear themselves talk.

"Also, a lot of parents have used the Lounge to come in and eat a lunch with their kids. We get to see families in the school."

Bickert said in his letter that RMSD officials are trying to find out from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the state Public Education Department whether there's any flexibility in the rules that will let them adjust menus or serving size in a way that lets student diners back in.

In the meantime, he wrote, the district is committed to "supporting and growing Teepee Lounge and the culinary arts program."